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PUBLIC, RECORD OFFICE Reference :-
C.O.885
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2 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
74
LAWS IN FORCE IN THE COLONIES AS TO TRESPASS,
EASTERN public or private, and give notice of such seizure to the nearest constable or officer of COLONIES police, who shall thereupon take charge of and impound the same in the public pound,
Cattle tray. ing on roads or banks of
sized by pr ong auto-
rized
if any exist, or shall hereafter be established within the respective Gravats aforesaid, or, for want thereof in some convenient spot near the dwelling or station of such constable or officer of police, and shall forthwith give public notice of such impounding in the usual manner; and if at any time within eight days inclusive from the date of such public notice, the owner of such stray cattle, goats, sheep or pigs, or any person on his behalf, shall appear to claim the same, he shall not be entitled to have the same restored to him but upon payment of all reasonable expenses incurred on account thereof, together with one-tenth of the value of such cattle, goats, sheep, or pigs, to be paid to the finder thereof if he shall have acted bond file, such expenses and value, in case of dispute, to be assessed by the district court.
13. And it is further enacted, that it shall and may be lawful for any local headman or person duly authorized by the Government agent, his assistant, or the surveyor anals may be general, to seize any cattle found straying, tied, or tethered (except only such cattle as may be tied and tethered during the time any cart to which they belong shall be loading or unloading), upon any public carriage road beyond the Gravets aforesaid, such road not being less than ten feet in average width, or on the borders thereof, or on the banks of any public navigable canal, and to bring the same to the nearest constable or police vidahn, or local headman, who shall forthwith report the circumstance to the district judge having local jurisdiction; and such district judge shall cause such cattle to be impounded, and public notice thereof to be given in the usual manner; and if at any time within fourteen days inclusive from the date of such public notice, the owner of such stray cattle shall appear, he shall not be entitled to have the same restored to him but upon payment of reasonable expenses, to be assessed by the district court, for keep- ing the same, together with a penalty at the discretion of the court not exceeding Three shillings for every head of such cattle, one moiety of such penalty to be paid to the informer, if he shall appear to have acted bond fide, and the residue to the use of our Lord the King.
Such mala and canals to Ispecitivi,
Afrod
14. Provided always, that the roads and canals to which the last preceding clause of this Ordinance shall be taken to apply, shall from time to time be specified by the atadoties authority of Government, and notices thereof in the English and Native language or languages of the district shall be transmitted to every Government agent and judge of every district through which the road or caual shall run. And such Government agent and district judge is hereby required to cause the same, or certified copies thereof, to be affixed on some conspicuous place at their respective offices for public information, and such Government agent or assistant Government agent shall likewise cause a copy thereof to be affixed in some conspicuous spot along the road or canal, and at every Toll-house or place of collecting toll within every such district.
Inredeemed
sold.
15. And it is further enacted, that all stray cattle, goats, sheep or pigs, seized in the att, S.,act of trespass or straying within the meaning of any of the preceding clauses, and which shall not have been claimed and redeemed within fourteen days from the day of seizure inclusive, shall be sold under the direction of the district judge; and the proceeds thereof shall be applied in the first instance to defray the expense of keeping them, then the damages awarded and penalty (if any); and the balance (if any), unless claimed by the owner within six months, paid over to the Government agent for the use of Government,
I'LA B to trespasse
io sportive.
Given at Colombo this Twenty-first day of December, One thousand, eight hundred and thirty-five.
By His Excellency's command,
P. ANSTRUTIER,
Colonial Secretary. ORDINANCE enacted by the Governor of Ceylon, with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council thereof.
Clause 20, of No. 6. •
AN ORDINANCE relative to Malicious Injuries and to certain Thefts of Property. 20. Provided always and it is further enacted, that nothing in this Ordinance con- tained shall extend to any case where the party trespassing acted under a fair and reasonable supposition that he had a right to do the act complained of, nor to any trespass, not being wilful and malicious, committed in hunting, or. in the pursuit of any other sport or diversion, but that every such trespass shall be punishable, if punish- able at all, in the same manner as before the passing of this Ordinance.
AND ALSO AS TO PRESERVATION OF GAME.
75
ORDINANCE enacted by the Governor of Ceylon, with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council thereof.
EASTERN COLONTES.
No 13.-1869.
An ORDINANCE to prevent the wanton destruction of Elephants, and to restrict their removal from the Island.
WHEREAS it is expedient to prevent the wanton destruction of elephants, and to restrict their removal from the Island: It is therefore hereby enacted by the Governor of Ceylon, with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council thereof, as follows:
Prestall
No perabl
1. No person shall catch, shoot, or otherwise destroy an elephant in any part of this Island without first obtaining a licence for that purpose as hereinafter prescribed pro- to catch or vided that this prohibition shall not apply to the destruction of elephants trespassing on shoot cultivated lands.
elephants
without
Proviso
Government
ant Govern-
2. It shall be lawful for the Government Agent of any Province, or the Assistant licence, Government Agent of the district, to issue licences empowering any person or persons therein named to catch, shoot, or otherwise destroy clephants, and to define in such agentsiat- licences the time during which they are to be in force, and the terms and conditions mint agent to subject to which any elephant may be caught, shot, or destroyed. Such licence shall be is licens on a stamp of £1, to be supplied by the applicant.
Stamp
licences.
3. Any person catching shooting, or otherwise destroying elephants without a licence, or after it shall cease to be in force, or contrary to any of its terms and conditions, shall for shooting be guilty of an offence, and be liable on conviction to a fine of Five pounds for each without elephant so caught, shot, or destroyed, and any elephant which shall be captured with-incol
out a licence shall be forfeited.
licence.
Royalty un
4. Elephants removed from this Island to any place beyond the seas shall be hence- forward subject to the payment of such sum, not exceeding Twenty pounds, as a royalty, elephants te as the Governor shall, by proclamation, to be by him from time to time issued, appoint, moved from Such royalty shall be collected by the officers of Customs at the various places of ship- ment throughout the Island.
the Island
Governor to make regula-
5. It shall be lawful for the Governor, with the advice of the Executive Council, to make regulations for the conduct of the capture of elephants, and all licences issued under section 2 shall be subject to such regulations, and any breach thereof shall be tions for the punishable as a breach of such licence.
conduct of th
capture of
6. It shall be lawful for any magistrate to direct that any sum, not exceeding one-half elephants. of the fine actually recovered and realized under the provisions of this Ordinance, shall be paid to the informer,
Passed in Council the fifteenth day of December, One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine.
JAMES SWAN,
Clerk to the Council.
Assented to by His Excellency the Governor the seventeenth day of December, One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, and published by his order.
HENRY T. IRVING,
(No. 280.)
SIR,
(Signed)
Colonial Secretary.
HERCULES ROBINSON.
Enclosure 3 in No. 33.
Camp. Cadreveli, 20th October, 1868. My late tour in the Tamankadua and Batticaloa districts has shown me the wanton destruction of elephants now going on through the whole of ths side of the Island, and the herds are now all broken up into small parties of three and four, while it is very common to find a she-elephant with a single young one by herself, a thing most unusual formerly, and at entire variance with the habits of the animal.
This is all caused by the demand which has arisen for elephants in India; and the elephant catchers of these two districts-in fact all the Moors of some five villages— desert their legitimate cultivations, and wander over the country, from Padivil Colom to Yala Ar, catching as many young elephants as they can, and for each one they catch destroying three or four old females.
Upwards of 150 have been captured and paid for by the Pattánis, or natives of India,
1. 2
Enclosure d in No. 383
HY